it's similar to what used to happen with Mel that I just learned about this movie that I'm so glad I've learned about now

I recommend reading basic facts then watching the trailer, if you haven't done those things already:

Quote

The film is shot in one single long take by Sturla Brandth GrÝvlen from about 4:30 to 7:00 in the Kreuzberg and Mitte neighborhoods. The script consisted of twelve pages, with most of the dialogue being improvised.

this has been playing at the sundance theater for over a month and i still haven't gone to see it. when it's in the theater for over a month and i still don't go see it is when i think i'm making ridiculous life mistakes

It's an incredible ride. Another film that captures a certain Berliny mood very well, especially the first part. It's almost two different films, the start and the end, and I wouldn't have minded seeing a whole feature of the low-key mood and interactions they set up in the beginning, where we're just floating around these extremely charismatic characters - a young Spanish immigrant coming to Berlin for work and partying and a group of slightly criminal locals. It eventually slides into a sloppily executed heist (sloppy by the protagonists not the filmmakers) that is extremely nerve-wracking. The transition happens via a very silly, and for this film uncharacteristically caricatured, gangsters-in-a-garage scene that sticks out negatively, but once the heist gets going that is forgiven.

It has a tremendous energy, and the one-take really serves the tension well, only once, in the start of the film, there's a scene in an elevator where I felt the long-take negatively.

03: Those subtitles thankfully don't appear like that in the film itself.

that's what i call my emotions btw. that's a great description of those characters. i know what you mean about the things you didn't like very much, i think that too, and i think i liked them. i think i liked everything and i'm glad i saw this.

spoiler citymaybe best right now i remember the club scene after the robbery. so the idea of a club scene as existential symbolism has been a topic in my mind and in movies recently. and this was a great one with people together! and two guys get excitedly naked while dancing! is that a european thing? represent.

then when i keep remembering she's playing the piano. how did she play the piano that way?? she's from Spain. he was a German guy i also had a crush on. i found his forehead crease remarkable and i envied it. i like how this movie wasn't full of perfect people but they were perfectly people. i liked everyone. even the guy who threw up and bails has that great moment of a slow dance with her in the beginning on the streets. when the cops pass twice! how many fucking tiny details are there in this long take movie.

I've been listening to back episodes of The /Filmcast, and they recommended this relentlessly without ever spoiling it. Although I think they emphasized the "turn" a bit much. Just know that it does turn and definitely gets better at that point.

Anyway, yes, this movie is a stunning accomplishment. The level of detail, as jenkins said, but especially the performances... wow. Victoria in particular. It achieves realism better than anything I can remember. (Didn't even mind the scenes that Withnail mentioned.)

Here's the thing, though. I didn't like these people. Not even Victoria. Because... well... spoilers...

SPOILERS

Victoria is dumb. She just is. She's catastrophically dumb. I was affected by her humanity, because the performance was that strong. But the character is just a walking bad-decision-making machine. I don't think she makes a single good decision until the last half hour. One of those is obvious (changing clothes), and one is morally questionable (stealing a baby). She even has several paths of escape along the way, but she chooses not to take them. She insists on helping these idiot strangers.

"Charming" is not a word I would use to describe any of those guys. I had alarm bells going off before I had any clue what was going on. I saw "BAD NEWS" flashing on the screen as each one of them was introduced. Victoria was drawn to them, though, because she's dumb, and because she is too emotionally generous, and too impulsive.

So no, I don't have any good feelings about them and never did. Victoria is already a somewhat tragic figure when the plot begins (having failed at her dream), then she goes out and meets dumb criminals who drag her into a vortex of failure and tragedy.

Maybe my reaction was one valid interpretation intended by the movie. But I think I was supposed to feel more like this:

i like how this movie wasn't full of perfect people but they were perfectly people. i liked everyone. even the guy who threw up and bails has that great moment of a slow dance with her in the beginning on the streets.

maybe best right now i remember the club scene after the robbery. so the idea of a club scene as existential symbolism has been a topic in my mind and in movies recently. and this was a great one with people together! and two guys get excitedly naked while dancing! is that a european thing? represent.

When they were dancing in the club after the heist, I did not see an exuberant expression of humanity. I saw four wasted dumbasses sealing their fate.

This film has so many stupid people, and it kind of ruined an otherwise great film. Now i'm talking about everything that happened after the robbery. Like, why would they go to a club two minutes away from the bank, park a stolen car outside, get naked and dance like crazy people? The scene itself was cool, but I just couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted because I thought it was so fucking stupid. Maybe it was the drugs or the adrenaline, but it drove me crazy nevertheless. And there was a lot more too.

Everything else was great. I just wish I liked the characters more, and that their decisions would have made sense. Because it got so annoying in the second part of the film.